Instacart alsorecently expanded its partnership with Stater Bros. in Orange County. The supermarket also offers beer and wine delivery.

Instacart’s announcement comes a week after Postmates added alcohol to its services in Orange County, Long Beach, Sacramento and San Diego. The service, which promises delivery in less than 25 minutes, expands on a test launched January in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

While Instacart deliveries are limited to BevMo, Postmates’ app-based program retrieves its craft beer, wine and spirits from local liquor stores. Because the network is large, Postmates guarantees delivery within 25 minutes – much faster than DoorDash.

“We are able to do that because we strategically partnered with merchants that are in prime areas in the zone,” Postmates spokeswoman April Conyers said.

The Register decided to put DoorDash, Postmates and Instacart to the test. (At the time, BevMo wasn’t yet available on Instacart, so we shopped at Stater Bros.) All orders were made at roughly the same time from Orange.

Here’s how they stacked up:

DoorDash: A Few Speed Bumps

Though DoorDash is a market leader in food delivery, speed almost always is an issue with this app-based program. We can forgive DoorDash for hour-long wait times because restaurant food must be prepared, packaged and delivered.

But a fetching a six-pack or a bottle of wine shouldn’t take an hour.

Though DoorDash says its network of restaurants, breweries and liquor stores has doubled since it launched last year, my options in Orange were limited to seven restaurants, breweries and liquor stores. Delivery time estimates ranged from 47 to 59 minutes.

In reality, a liquor store delivery of three craft beer bottles took 59 minutes. The “dasher” or driver lost a few minutes because one of the beers was out of stock. The driver had to call me to get alternate options. Because he was unfamiliar with craft beer, he handed the phone to the liquor store clerk to update the order.

The dasher delivered the three bottles in a thin black liquor store bag pulled from an insulated DoorDash cooler.

Every delivery requires identification to ensure the buyer is 21 or older.

For DoorDash, my name had to be entered manually; the dasher had trouble spelling my legal last name (which is not Luna).

Getting frustrated, he handed me his phone so I could enter the rest of my driver’s license information, including date of birth and its expiration date.

The delivery fee was $2.99, on top of a $3.36 service fee and a $2 tip. Tipping is optional, and is entered before delivery.

DoorDash spokesman Eitan Bencuya said the company charges a delivery fee of either $2.99 or $6.99, depending “on our relationship / negotiation with the merchant.” Customers in Orange County pay a flat 12 percent service across all restaurants and stores. Fees in Los Angeles are slightly more competitive: delivery fees are either 99 cents, $2.99 or $5.99 with a flat 9 percent service fee.

On Monday, DoorDash plans to announce its expansion into more than 40 cities in the Inland Empire and San Gabriel Valley. For now, deliveries in those areas will be meals only, not alcohol, the company said.

It’s a smart way to organize. However, I wish it had a craft beer tab, as I found myself swiping past domestic brands like Budweiser before finding a six-pack from craft beer specialist Lagunitas.

As promised, the delivery came lickety-split – 19 minutes.

The driver asked to scan my driver’s license, but the scanning app didn’t work so he entered my driver’s license information manually. It took a few minutes. Unlike the DoorDash driver, he wasn’t frazzled.

Delivery was free as part of a month-long promotional campaign by Postmates. After that, deliveries are $2.99 for orders under $30, free for Unlimited subscribers with no minimum order, or free for non-subscribers if they order $30 or more.

Beyond that, there were no other fees beyond the option to tip after the order is delivered. I like that better than DoorDash, which requires you to tip before services are rendered.

Instacart: No frills, Easy

Instacart is a local leader in grocery delivery sector, so I expected the shopping experience on the app to be easy – and it was.

The app is designed with “storefronts” for various merchants such as Costco, Stater Bros., Whole Foods Market and BevMo in Orange County.

I went with Stater Bros. because I tested the beer and wine services ahead of BevMo launch last Monday. I selected the same six-pack of beer I ordered from Postmates, which was $2 less at $10.99.

Because I was a first-time user of Instacart, I was charged a penny for delivery.

As for taking my identification, Instacart was the easiest of the three. I just had to show my driver’s license and provide an electronic signature.

My bill included a separate service fee of $1.10. The fee is 10 percent of total sales and is earmarked for drivers. Tipping is part of the checkout, but you can also change the tip after delivery. Normal delivery charges for non-subscribers are $5.99 for orders of more than $35 and $9.99 for orders less than $35. (Instacart requires a minimum $10 purchase). Instacart Express members, who pay $149 a year, are not charged delivery fees.

Final thoughts

Would I use any of these services again?

Probably, depending on the situation. My go-to first pick would be Postmates because they had a plethora of options and inexpensive fees compared with the others.

Though my choices were limited with DoorDash, the one liquor storein my area had a fantastic selection of craft beer. The company is testing delivery from select BevMo stores in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Hopefully, that experiment will expand to Orange County soon.

As for delivery time, the DoorDash spokesman said the company’s “goal is for all deliveries to arrive within one hour.”

That’s good, but DoorDash still has to work on reducing fees to compete with Postmates.

Instacart makes sense if you’re buying alcohol with your groceries and if you’re an Express member. Beyond that, it doesn’t seem like a great value for spontaneous booze purchases.

Nancy Luna is an award-winning journalist with more than 25 years reporting experience. She's been the Register's restaurant beat writer since 2005, covering some of the biggest players in the industry: In-N-Out, Chipotle, McDonald’s and Taco Bell. Luna also covers dining trends from food halls to food trucks. She writes with authority and is considered an expert in her field.

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